Feedback on Westwood clontarf

Hanley wrote: »

This. If you want a cheap gym, there's plenty to choose from. If you want what WW offers, pay for it.

TommyKnocker wrote: »

Can I ask what you would consider to be a reasonable per visit price for a pay as you go gym?

This heavily depends on how much use one person gets out of the gym. A true Pay Per Visit, I would honestly say €5 per visit is not excessive, but it offers no commitment to the gym and takes away some incentive for the client to go. I would say €30 per month is reasonable for membership of a Gym like WW, which is very similar to BD in Santry. The BD gym is doing a €235 per year offer (better offers for doubles). €30pm = €360 per year, which I would pay if they did it monthly. It's safe to say that the average person will not visit the gym 6 days per week. You're also not counting sick days and holidays, so the sums given are not entirely accurate. Still, value for money really depends on ability to pay and how much use the gym gets from the client. When you line up WW facilities to BD facilities, I definitely think BD is is far better value for money and the gym itself is just as good, even if the pool is not as big and it has no rock climbing wall.

I have posted this previously on similar threads. I was a member of WW Clontarf up to TF closed down. Then it just became too busy for my liking, so I bought equipment for home and workout here now.

I may do this myself.

I paid a €95 joining fee and 75/mth contract which worked out at €995 for the first year and €900/yr after that.

The joining fee alone is a major put-off and is nearly half of the total cost to join BD. I would not pay €1000 per year to use any gym.

I went to the gym 6 days a week, so €995 divided by 12 gives you €82.91/month. This equates to €20.72/week or €3.45/visit.

If it's used so often, it certainly makes it cheaper. I used to sell mobile phone contracts for €50 per month and said that "it's less than the cost of a loaf of bread per day". High prices are often sold in this way, but it's still a high price for basically the same service that can be purchased for a quarter of the price 15 minutes away.

For €3.45 I had access to a well equipped gym with multiple power cages and squat racks, lots of benches, lots of Oly bars (from 17kg - 20kg), lots of weight plates and dumbells up to 55kg I believe was the heaviest DBs there.

I don't know what the heaviest DBs were at BD, but there were some big feckers lifting them that looked like a pin prick would result in a major clean up op in the gym. There was a decent rack of DBs. I generally used the smaller 15kg ones, because i'm no Arny, but they were on the light end of the rack and there were much bigger ones at the other end.

There was also a huge amount and assortment of cardio equipment, threddies, CII rowers, bikes, steppers etc. 99% of classes were free with the exception of Yoga or Pilates as they had to bring instructors in for these.

They had all that stuff at BD too. A sea of threddies and bikes and steppers. They had free spinning classes when I was last there, but it may have been a temp promotion.

There was also 3 pools (50m, 25m and kiddies), the wet area with Sauna, Jacuzzu, steam rooms. Climbing wall and tennis faciliteis were also available to you.

BD has one swimming pool, which is maybe 25-30 metres long. It has a hydrotherapy pool you lie down in and 2 jacuzzis you sit in. 2 saunas and 2 steam rooms.

WW is open all year round with the exception of XMas day, Stephens Day and NY day AFAIK and are open from 06:30 am to 10 pm. There are also a good amount of parking spaces available both outside the gym and in the overflow carpark, which was free at that time (assuming it still is).

Opening times would be similar, but I think it closes at about 5, or 6 on Sundays. Car park was never more than half full, was also free.

AFAIAC, €3.45 would just about cover the cost of a miserable looking sandwhich in Centra or Spar etc and for the facilites WW offered, I felt €3.45/visit offered great value for money, even though I only used the Gym, rowers, Spin classes, the pool and wet area.

Actually €3.45 wouldn't even cover the cost of a miserable sandwich in Spar :pac:
Once again, value is depending on how often you use the gym, but if you currently spend €3.45 per use at WW; you would only spend €0.75 per use at BD. And the changing rooms are much cleaner too

Of course if you are going to go only once or twice a week and/or leave after 2-3 months, then there are cheaper options than WW.

There are cheaper options even if you went every day, twice a day. I think WW is the most expensive Gym in Ireland without a PT included in the package.

But if you are into being active and keeping fit and will visit frequently, then IMHO the facilities available for ~€3.50/visit are hard to beat. Again, IMHO not everything can or should be judged purely on the price tag.

That price is based on visitin 6 days per week, so won't apply to most people. Matching, or close to matching facilities are available for less at other gyms i'm sure. I can only speak for BD, because that's the only gym, still open that I can compare to WW, as a past member. TF doesn't count, because it's closed. TF was a rip off too, considering how often the leisure area had broken equipment. The Joining fee at WW is just a way to try to prevent people from not renewing, or missing payments.

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I have been a member of this place a couple of times in the past but not since about 2011 at this stage, I'm thinking of going back.
Do they still have a joining fee? Is it steep? Can it be haggled?
How busy is it nowadays? I remember back when I went it would be absolutely crazy busy some evenings.
Thanks

silverharp wrote: »

you have to do you, I'll let mine run for a while, hopefully they are paying their staff in some way. I'd cut them some slack for a few weeks anyway. chances are they may so something on the back end in the future.